What a First Date Costs in 25 US Cities

Two cocktails, two main courses, one cab home: in 2026 that is the whole first date, and its price depends on your city more than on your date. A widely quoted survey puts the average cost of a date at $189, but that figure counts grooming and gas money too. We priced the evening itself. In the 25 US cities we checked on September 27, 2026, dinner and drinks for two cost $74 to $151 with a 20% tip, before sales tax, and adding a cab there and back brings the classic first date to $103 to $192.

Every price below comes from a menu, price list or official tariff that the venue or regulator published itself, with its link and the date we read it. The full dataset, 160 rows, is free to download as a CSV.

The short answer: $74 to $151 for dinner and drinks, before tax

In the 25 cities we priced, two cocktails and two main courses with a 20% tip cost $74.28 in San Antonio and $151.20 in Miami, before sales tax; the median city comes in at $124.80. Add one person’s 5-mile cab there and back and the classic first date runs from $102.88 in San Antonio to $192.00 in Miami, in the 18 cities that publish an official taxi tariff.

The extremes are the exception. Seventeen of the 25 cities land between $115 and $142 for dinner and drinks. San Antonio’s low total comes from a Tex-Mex dinner at Rosario’s, where the median main course is $17.95; Miami’s high one comes from Café La Trova, where it is $47.

These numbers sit far from the survey figures you may have seen, because they measure a different thing. The BMO Real Financial Progress Index, fielded by Ipsos among 2,501 US adults, puts the average “all-in” date at $189, including pre-date grooming and gas, across every stage of a relationship. A 2023 survey for Self Financial found that the average person spends $58.84 per date. Both ask people what they spent. We added up what the menus say.

The format moves the check more than the city does. The median drinks date costs $38.40; the median dinner and drinks, $124.80.

The full index: 25 cities, every price sourced

Every number in the table comes from a menu, price list or tariff we read on September 27, 2026, and every one is in the downloadable dataset with its link. The table is sorted by the cost of dinner and drinks.

How to read it. The cocktail and main-course prices are the median of the venue’s list; where we checked two venues in a city, the figure is their average. A drinks date is two cocktails plus a 20% tip. Dinner and drinks is two main courses and two cocktails plus 20%. The classic first date adds two 5-mile taxi fares, one person’s ride there and back. Sales tax is not included anywhere, because it differs by city and county.

A dash means the venue or regulator did not publish a price we could verify on the collection date. We left those cells empty rather than estimate them. You can read more about how we source and check numbers.

The venues behind the numbers

These are the bars and restaurants behind the cocktail and main-course columns. We chose well-known bars and full-service restaurants that publish their prices online, and we name them because a price is only checkable when you know where it came from. The CSV notes give each median’s item count and range.

Download the full dataset (CSV, 160 rows).

The same plate of pasta costs 14% more in Santa Monica than in Dallas

At North Italia, a restaurant chain that publishes a separate dinner menu for each location, the same Spicy Rigatoni Vodka costs $24.50 in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte and San Antonio, and $28.00 in Santa Monica and Washington, DC.

That comparison is here for a reason. One restaurant per city is an editorial choice, and a critic could always say we picked an expensive one. An identical plate removes the restaurant from the equation and leaves only the city. North Italia prices its menu in four tiers: $24.50 in eight metros, including its Leawood, Kansas, location near Kansas City and King of Prussia outside Philadelphia; $25.50 in Orlando, Phoenix and Denver; $27.50 in San Diego, Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Miami; and $28.00 in Santa Monica, part of the Los Angeles metro, and Washington. Chicken Parmesan follows the same ladder, from $26.00 to $29.00, and the chain’s cocktail median runs from $15.00 to $17.00.

Dinner for two from this menu, with two cocktails and a 20% tip, costs $94.80 in the cheapest tier and $107.40 in the most expensive. That is a gap of $12.60 for the same evening.

The gap between restaurants is far larger. In New York alone, the median main course is $28.50 at Jack’s Wife Freda and $38.50 at Balthazar. Across our 25 cities, it runs from $17.95 to $47.00. Where you book matters more than which city you live in.

A cocktail costs $10 to $21, and most bars have settled at $16 to $18

The median cocktail on the menus we checked ranges from $10.00 at The Porch in Winter Park, outside Orlando, to $21.00 at Death & Co in Los Angeles; in 16 of the 25 cities it is $16 to $18.

So how much is a cocktail in a big US city in 2026? Most often $16, the figure in seven cities, from Chicago and Philadelphia to Miami and Charlotte. Two of them with a 20% tip cost $38.40, and the full range for a drinks date is $24.00 to $50.40.

Many bars have stopped pricing drinks one by one. Jack’s Wife Freda lists all its signature cocktails at $18, Absinthe in San Francisco lists its signature and classic cocktails at $18 each, Whiskey Bird in Atlanta prints “cocktails 15” once for the whole list, and Fern Bar in Kansas City charges $14 for every classic.

Read Orlando’s number with care. The Porch is a casual neighborhood bar and restaurant, and it was the only Orlando-area venue we found with a full cocktail list and regular prices online. Vincenzo, our Orlando dinner restaurant, publishes cocktail prices only for happy hour.

Happy hour is the easiest saving, and we left it out of the index on purpose because it only covers part of the evening. At Vincenzo, for example, cocktails are $10 all night on Mondays and from 5 to 7 pm Tuesday to Friday.

Getting there: a 5-mile cab costs $12.60 to $23.59 by the official meter

Using each city’s published taxi tariff, a 5-mile ride costs $12.60 in Baltimore and $23.59 in Chicago, where the meter also charges for time.

We use taxis, not Uber or Lyft, because app prices are not published: they change by the minute and the account, so nobody can check them later. A taxi meter rate is a public record, set by a city, county or state regulator, and in four of our cities posted by the city-owned airport. We computed each fare for 5 miles, one passenger, about 15 minutes at steady speed, with no waiting.

No published citywide tariff was found on September 27, 2026, for Detroit, Minneapolis, San Diego, Denver, Orlando, St. Louis and Austin. Those cells are blank, not guessed.

The meter is rarely the whole fare. In New York, the Taxi & Limousine Commission adds a $0.50 MTA State Surcharge and a $1.00 Improvement Surcharge to every ride, both included in our figure, plus a $2.50 congestion surcharge below 96th Street and a 75-cent congestion pricing toll south of 60th Street, which are not. Chicago raised its meter rates on July 1, 2026, and the city’s fare notice says its “taxi fare structure has not changed since 2016”; a 3:30 to 7 pm rush-hour surcharge adds $2.50. Washington adds a $1.00 emergency fuel surcharge until December 25, 2026, and in Dallas each extra passenger adds $2.00 to the meter.

Some official tariffs are old: Baltimore’s posted rate sheet dates from 2008, Houston’s from 2019, the Los Angeles rate card from 2023. We report what the regulator publishes.

Six great museums are free, and a movie still costs under $20

Six of the 24 flagship art museums we checked charge nothing for general admission, and an independent cinema’s adult evening ticket costs $12.00 to $18.00 in the 12 cities where one publishes a fixed price.

The free six are the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington (“Admission is always free.”), the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City (“Admission is free every day, for everyone.”). Special exhibitions can cost extra. Several paid museums are cheaper for locals: The Met in New York is pay-what-you-wish for New York State residents, the Detroit Institute of Arts is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, and the Art Institute of Chicago, the most expensive at $32, charges Chicago residents $20.

A movie and a drink afterward costs $63.60 for two in Tampa and $84.40 in Los Angeles. Chains show prices only inside their checkout flows, so we used independent cinemas with a posted price list; 13 cities had none we could verify.

We also looked for coffee. Only four venues in the index publish a latte price: $6 at Jack’s Wife Freda in New York and $5 at Le Diplomate in Washington, Mercat Bistro in Dallas and Tavernetta in Denver. Four cities are too few to compare, so coffee stays in the dataset but out of the index totals. For more ways to spend less, see our cheap first date ideas.

Dates cost more in 2026 for reasons that show up on the check

Restaurant prices rose 3.4% in the year to August 2026, and a national survey puts the average date at $189, up 12.5% in a year.

“The food away from home index rose 3.4 percent over the last year,” says the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its August 2026 CPI release. BMO’s survey found that Millennials spend $252 on an average date, up 32% from 2025, and Gen Z $205, up from $194. Americans who dated went out about 12 times in the past year, down from around 14, and spent $2,323 on dates. Nearly half of singles, 47%, told BMO that dating is “simply not financially worth it.”

Some of the increase is printed at the bottom of the check. The Publican in Chicago adds a 3.5% “Hospitality Supplement” to every bill, which the menu says helps pay for staff wellness benefits and health insurance. Herb & Wood in San Diego states that “A 4% surcharge will be added to all guests’ checks.” Vincenzo in Orlando notes on its menu that “A 20% gratuity is automatically added to all parties for your convenience.” None of these charges is in our totals; all of them are in the dataset notes.

New York has the most expensive reputation, and not only in our table. Deutsche Bank’s “Cheap Date” index, published since 2012, ranks New York as “the most expensive place to date in the U.S.,” with five European cities pricier still, Fortune reported in June 2025. In our index, New York sits mid-table for dinner and drinks at $123.60: the two New York restaurants we priced have median mains of $28.50 and $38.50, below our picks in Miami and Tampa.

This is the first edition of the index; the March 2027 update will bring our first comparison.

What the numbers mean for your first date

Pick the format first and the city second: in every city we priced, a drinks date costs less than half of dinner and drinks.

Say you’re meeting someone in Chicago, a hypothetical built on index prices. Two cocktails at The Publican’s $16 median come to $38.40 with tip. Add two main courses and the evening is $128.40. If one of you takes a cab both ways, the official meter adds $47.18, before any rush-hour surcharge.

Budget your first date in four steps:

1. Choose the format: coffee, drinks, dinner, a movie or a museum.
2. Find your city’s line in the table.
3. Add 20% for table service and your local sales tax.
4. Add the ride: two taxi fares, or your transit fare.

A first date is also rarely the last one. If it goes well, you are budgeting for a few more, and it helps to know how many dates it usually takes before people call it a relationship. The cheapest formats, a free museum or a single drink, leave the most room for talking, so it’s worth bringing a few questions that get past small talk.

One date is a line item; a year of them is a budget. For the longer view, see Velin Privé’s breakdown of the real cost of dating.

Once you know what the evening costs, the harder part is choosing where to go: our first date ideas rated by cost, noise and time start at free.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a first date cost?

In the 25 US cities we priced on September 27, 2026, two cocktails with a 20% tip cost $24 to $50, and dinner and drinks for two cost $74 to $151 before sales tax. Adding one person’s cab there and back brings the classic first date to $103 to $192 in the 18 cities with an official taxi tariff.

What is the average price of dates?

A BMO survey fielded by Ipsos among 2,501 US adults put the average date at $189 in 2026, up 12.5% from $168 in 2025, counting extras such as grooming and gas. Our index measures something narrower: what a first date costs by format and city, using prices published on menus and in official tariffs.

What’s the cheapest city for a first date?

San Antonio, in our index: dinner and drinks for two cost $74 there, with a Tex-Mex dinner at a $17.95 median main course and $13 cocktails. Orlando has the cheapest drinks date at $24. Baltimore has the lowest official 5-mile cab fare at $12.60, and six cities have a free flagship art museum.

Does the index include tax and tip?

It includes a 20% tip on bar and restaurant service and leaves out sales tax, because tax rates differ by city and county. Surcharges that some restaurants add, such as The Publican’s 3.5% hospitality supplement in Chicago or Herb & Wood’s 4% surcharge in San Diego, are noted in the dataset but not added to the totals.

Why are dates more expensive in 2026?

Restaurant prices rose 3.4% in the year to August 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a 2026 BMO survey put the average date at $189, up 12.5% in a year. Some restaurants have added their own percentage surcharges, and Chicago raised taxi meter rates in July 2026 for the first time since 2016.

Can I use this data?

Yes. The full dataset is free to download as a CSV and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0), so you can reuse and republish it, including commercially, as long as you credit Smart Dating and link to this page. Every row carries its source link and collection date.

How we built the index

We read every price ourselves from the venue’s or regulator’s own page on September 27, 2026, and we list what we left out and why.

1. Cities. The 25 largest metro areas in the US Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates, minus Riverside-San Bernardino, a suburban metro without one date-night center, plus Kansas City, where “date ideas kansas city” draws about 2,900 US searches a month.
2. Items. A cocktail is the median of a venue’s full cocktail list, without happy-hour prices, zero-proof drinks or sangria. A main course is the median of a full-service restaurant’s main-course sections, plus pasta at Italian places; tasting menus, Michelin-starred restaurants and venues with a median main above $50 are screened out. Movie, museum and taxi prices follow the rules described above.
3. Totals. For two people, with a 20% tip on bar and restaurant service and no sales tax.
4. Sources we did not use. We did not use Numbeo: its terms of use reserve commercial use for paying license holders and state that “Automated data collection methods (such as scraping or crawling) are strictly prohibited unless you have obtained prior written permission from Numbeo.” We did not use Expatistan, the crowd-sourced source behind The Black Tux’s 2025 city ranking, because we could not confirm its reuse terms, or app estimates and menu aggregators.
5. Limits. The venues are an editorial selection, not a random sample, and one or two venues cannot represent a whole metro. Online menus can lag behind printed ones.
6. Updates and reuse. We will re-read every price in March 2027 and April 2027 and spot-check the main cities before January 12, 2027. The dataset is published under CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely with credit to Smart Dating and a link to this page. Download the CSV.

This index was researched and written by the Smart Dating Editorial Team. No venue, chain or regulator was contacted or paid, and none of them reviewed the page before publication.